


Bones

by RustedWireWitch



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Beach House, Ghosts, Horror, M/M, Ouija
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 07:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20223721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RustedWireWitch/pseuds/RustedWireWitch
Summary: After the tumultuous events of Yu-Gi-Oh!, a group of young heroes decide to take a break at a beach house rented by Ryou. Things go sideways once somebody finds a Ouija board.Written for the Summer/Winter YGO gift exchange event. For Madicham!





	Bones

The sun had already started to go down by the time the band of friends had made their way back to the beach house. Rich golden light at their backs as they made their way indoors, shaking sand from their shoes before removing them, stepping into the long shadows and cool air of the wooden shack.

  
Ryou had rented the building out for the weekend, a quiet retreat for his companions and himself between walks on the beach or into the nearby small town. With these last few weeks of summer, he knew that it would be one of his last opportunities to spend time with them and it would be ideal to do so in as calm and relaxed an environment as possible.

  
Honda opened up the windows at the front of the hut, letting in a slight breeze to help cool them off after a long afternoon in the sun. The waves rhythmically drawing up to the shore were just far enough away to provide a pleasant and soothing ambience, ocean-spray whispers on the evening air.

  
They lounged about the communal area, thankful for the shade and comfortable seats. Yugi, Anzu and Honda taking up the large sofa, Jonouchi sprawled over one armchair like a discarded ragdoll and Ryou himself sitting cross-legged on the final plush chair. For a long while they enjoyed the quiet, broken only by the far-off sound of ocean birds coming inland for the coming night.

  
"What are the plans for the evening?" Yugi asked, turning between everyone gathered.

  
"As long as it don't involve more walking or going outside at all, I'm for it." Jonouchi muttered while staring at the ceiling. His limbs were arranged in a haphazard way that seemed to make his seating style simultaneously the most and least comfortable position imaginable, a talent that Ryou concluded was exhibited only by teenagers and cats.

  
"If I remember correctly, there were a few boardgames in here somewhere," Ryou said, hoisting himself up off the armchair and making his way across the room. In the corridor out by the bedrooms, a small wooden cupboard was set up with a few painted sea shells scattered across it. He opened it up and brought out the small stack of cardboard boxes, most of them faded and and all of them decades old. He hoisted them up and brought them back into the room, setting them down in the centre and sorting through them.

  
Missing pieces.

  
Missing rules.

  
Missing pieces and missing rules.

  
Box empty save for one dead wasp.

  
In the end the choice came down to one of two boxes. Some murder mystery game with several boards and a suggested play length of eight hours, or a plain cardboard box containing a very simplistic and worn Ouija board.

  
Ryou had seen several in his time, though this board looked less like a professionally put-together affair than it did an old home-made one that he had drawn up as a young boy. No branding or gothically elegant font on the letters, just plain black card and characters painted on somewhat hurriedly in light grey. Even the planchette was made from paper, the centre cut out roughly so that the white edges frayed over the hole.

"Do we really want to be messing around with something like this?" Anzu asked, frowning down at the box contents.

  
"Yeah," Honda nodded with a furtive look about him, "I mean, given everything we've all put up with these last few years."

  
"I thought this was supposed to be all flash though," Jonouchi countered, finally unfurling himself from his seat. "Like a parlour game or something, not something that can actually let you talk to ghosts."

  
Yugi arched his eyebrow as he smiled at his friend. "Duel Monsters was just a game once, remember?"

  
Ryou nodded quietly. A lot of things had been just games a few years ago. He absent-mindedly rubbed his palm where the faintest hint of a scar was still etched from his fateful game of Monster World.

  
"I will admit though," Ryou said, forcing himself back into the present, "that this doesn't exactly have all the trappings of a very genuine talking board."

  
"And it's not exactly a very genuine atmosphere for spooky stuff." Jonouchi said, a wave crashing and seagull cry punctuating his observation. Not quite the thunder and owl hoot one would expect for this kind of thing.

  
"In all likelihood it will just be a fun diversion." Ryou admitted, "but then again. If there's a chance it could connect us to the spirit world, well... I am sure there's at least one person in the great beyond you might want to contact. To see how they're getting on?" He locked eyes with Yugi and smiled warmly. He knew his friend was trying his best to move on, but perhaps this could help him in some small way.

  
They set the board up on the floor and each took up a place around it, reaching out and placing an index fingertip against the planchette.

  
"So do we ask a question out loud?" Honda asked, pressing down on the planchette hard enough that his fingertip had started to whiten.

  
"Just relax, Honda," Ryou told him, nodding as the young man softened his press against the paper. "A good classic to start with is: Is there anybody there?"

  
As expected, there was no reaction from the board. They sat there each with a hand outstretched and waited in silence.

  
Another wave rolled onto the beach.

  
A dog barked somewhere in the distance.

  
Slowly, gently, the paper planchette began to move. It drifted over the board with the sound of wood sliding against wood. Each of them could swear they could feel the slightest resistance as though opposing grains were being pushed along one another. Finally it settled into place.

  
Y E S

  
They all looked to one another, none of them quite sure whether to smile or begin being worried.

  
"What is your name?" Ryou asked, his voice faltering a little.

  
The planchette was still for a moment before slowly gliding across the board by a few inches, settling on

  
N O

  
Ryou frowned.

  
"Not an exact science, I suppose." He said with a quietly nervous laugh. He cleared his throat and tried something else. "Where were you born?"

  
The planchette crept away from its position for a moment, but then settled back into place over

  
N O

  
"Do you not know where you're from?" The planchette was still. "Or can you not spell it on this board?" There was a loud scraping and a slight yelp from the group as the device was dragged rapidly towards

  
Y E S

  
"If you know the name of where you are from as we understand it, please tell us."

  
There was a momentary pause, then the same scraping as it began to move again.

  
E  
G  
Y  
P  
T

  
"Egypt?" Jonouchi looked to Yugi, "did we really find him?"

  
Yugi was silent, looking intently down at the board.

  
"Where are you now?" Ryou asked, his voice growing firmer.

  
H  
E  
R  
E

  
"You're here in the room with us?"

  
Y E S

  
"Let's try introductions. My name is-"

  
B  
A  
K  
U  
R  
A

  
"Yes. That's right. We are trying to contact someone, are you our lost friend? Pharoah At-"

  
The planchette didn't even let Ryou finish his question before it screamed across the board, threatening to overbalance the group.

  
N O

  
"In that case, since you know my name, it would only be fair if you were to tell me yours."

  
The planchette started to move, but didn't settle on any characters as it did so. Instead it travelled across the outer edge of the board, tracing a perfect circle before returning to its starting position.  
As it started to slide down in a straight line to the bottom of the board, Ryou felt the hairs on the back of his neck tingling with static. A voice spoke in his ear, sounding out the planchette's last message.

  
"G O O D B Y E"

  
~

  
The lights had gone out long ago, and now there was just the final smokey blue haze of twilight filtering in through the window. Outside, Ryou could see a dark ocean washing up against a vast expanse of black sand. The stars were just starting to emerge onto the dense sheet of the sky.

  
Behind him, something shifted its weight. Something dry, creaking. It didn't breathe, but Ryou could smell the scents rising from inside its body. Sand and rot and old blood.

  
"How long have you been waiting for me?" He asked, not daring to turn around.

  
"For just as long as you have been waiting for me." Came the laboured reply. The voice was deep, rich, familiar, but strained as if it came at the end of great exertion.

  
"I haven't been waiting for you." Ryou told it. "I was done with you. We were finished."

  
"If that were true, then why did you come here?"

  
"I came to be with my friends."

  
"What friends?"

  
Ryou was alone. Just him and the being behind him.

  
"Remember, my love, my dear landlord."

  
Ryou did remember. He remembered going to each of his friends, asking them if they wanted to accompany him to the beach house for a weekend in the summer. Perhaps the last chance they would get to do so. He remembered each of them turning him down, all for different but valid reasons. It was a hectic time. Ryou couldn't have honestly expected them all to be available. One or two perhaps.

He would have to go alone.

  
"It's just you and me." He muttered.

  
"Just as it always should have been." Even without looking, Ryou could see the smirk on the spirit's face in his mind.

  
"I-" Ryou faltered, fingers curling into his palms. "I don't need you."

  
"I know." It was a spartan response that confused Ryou with its honesty. "But did you ever consider that I need you?"

  
"That's a little vulnerable for you, isn't it? Not exactly your style."

  
"And that's a little aggressive for you. Perhaps I rubbed off on you during our time together?"

  
Ryou tensed, biting back a remark.

  
"Kind, loving, always willing to see the best in people." The spirit continued, "even if the best wasn't there. Maybe you rubbed off on me too."

  
"I know what you're doing." Ryou said, wanting to sound firm but hearing the stammer in his own voice.

  
"Enlighten me, landlord."

  
"I'm not your landlord, you have no claim over my body. Not anymore. And you can't appeal to my sense of charity. I feared you before but there is no way I am going to pity you now."

  
"I am just bones without you, Ryou." The use of his name made the young man flinch, and he cursed himself for so obviously showing that it got to him. "I am a strong foundation, a framework, but ultimately I am just bones. I can't do this without you."

  
"Do what?"

  
"Exist."

  
They stayed in silence for a while. Twilight had long since passed and now the room was swamped by night.

  
"I know how this works." Ryou said, turning on the spot. The spirit was thin, gaunt even. Misery was etched across its features where they were visible. White hair hung in lank sections and framed a slender, hollow face. "You will attempt to play to my better nature and then, when that doesn't work, you turn to violence. I learned a lot more of you than you learned of me, I can see that clearly enough now."

  
The spirit smiled and Ryou tried his best to look brave as he caught the glint of perfectly white teeth, and the wet gleam of predatory eyes.

"Then what do you want me to say?" It asked him, "you are the best parts of me? You are what I could have been? You are the soul that I neglected? You are my own personal god?"

  
"I don't want you to say anything." Ryou told him, refusing to press his hands to the corner of his eyes and wipe the tears forming there. "Anything you say would just be a lie."

  
"Then perhaps lying to you is something else we share in common."

  
"I don't know what you're talking about."

  
"You never asked them." The spirit said, hands on his slender hips. "Not one of them."

  
"That's not true-"

  
"When you couldn't accept that, you pretended that they had plans. And when you couldn't accept that, then they accompanied you for as long as you needed them."

  
Ryou fought hard not to remember the long train journey down to the coast. Tried not to remember the feel of his bag resting on his lap, the jumping carriage jostling the contents of a single days change of clothes and one plain cardboard box.

  
"Using someone and casting them aside when you no longer need them, how on brand for you."

  
"No."

  
"That's no lie, my love, you didn't need me anymore and you let them take me away from you."

  
"That's not true."

  
"What isn't true? You said yourself that you don't need me anymore. Was that true?"

  
Ryou didn't answer.

"I'm just bones without you. You're just meat without me."

  
The tears were streaming fiercely now.

  
"Together we're a miracle, but apart we're just two halves of one carcass."

  
"I can't."

  
Two strong, bony hands pressed down onto Ryou's shoulders. The waves were crashing against the beach louder and louder. He could swear they would engulf the shack at any moment. As he was drawn into a cold embrace, he wasn't sure exactly who filled the room with the last statement of the night.

  
"I can't do this without you."


End file.
